Let us school Parlade about a very basic concept of human rights. The primary duty-bearer in the defense, protection, and promotion of human rights is the government and all its agencies, which includes the military. Human rights organizations such as Karapatan have their mandate centered on State-perpetrated human rights violations particularly because of this basic principle. The government has trillions of dollars at its disposal, funds that are being used to commit atrocities instead of being channeled to social services and mechanisms to promote and advance human rights. Remember the Commission on Human Rights? It was created after the Marcos’ martial law regime, precisely because of the recognition that the government has the propensity to train its guns against civilians and civil society. We are emphasizing this for Parlade and his crew’s enlightenment.
